Puzzle Toy Again?

The weather is still awful. It's cold, wet and just plain icky. (Apologies to my Northern friends. I'm sure that by comparison, conditions here would be down right pleasant. But in my defense, I moved to Florida for a reason!)

Jedi is bored. I don't want him outside for too long because he'll just get wet and muddy. We've tried to entertain him inside with games of Tug and Hall Ball. I've even offered various chew toys, though he'd rather root through the trash and shred old books. Even Roxy is getting annoyed with him.

When the rain let up we took a trip to Petsmart. I was hoping that the mental stimulation would wear him out. While there I found a new puzzle toy! You know I bought it. Contrary to what Hubby says, Jedi does not have too many puzzle toys.

This one is a shaped, plastic toy that looks kind of like the toys my children had when they were little. There are three brightly colored pieces that fit into corresponding holes in the frame. Unlike the kids' toy, you can hide treats behind the puzzle pieces.

The pieces fit flush with the frame and have rope handles to pull them out. Jedi uses his feet for everything and I was hoping that this puzzle would encourage him to use his mouth and nose more.

Jedi was able to pull the pieces out quickly. He had it open and ate all the treats in less than two minutes. (I was able to get ONE picture.) He used his mouth to pull out two pieces, and dumped the third out by tipping the puzzle over with his foot. Hey, it's a start!

So was the puzzle worth $15? Probably not. (Don't tell Hubby!) The best puzzle we've found so far is still the IQ Treat Ball. Jedi will bat that around for 20 minutes.

So what do you do to entertain your dogs during nasty weather? We'd really like to know. -- K